Cluster Map

February 19, 2009

A Culture of Travis the Chimp

The subtitle of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1993 article in The American Spectator magazine, "Defining Deviancy Down", was "How We’ve Become Accustomed to Alarming Levels of Crime and Destructive Behavior."

Because crime seemed intractable and there was so much of it, various municipalities (eg, New York City) simply decided to stop arresting or prosecuting people for "minor" crimes. Street dealers and hustlers were free to ply their trades. As a result neighborhoods deteriorated and more serious crime escalated. In 1993, Rudolph Giuliani won the Mayoralty in New York and instituted the broken windows policy first proposed by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in the early 1980s and the drug fueled crime wave in New York began to subside.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan was prescient in recognizing the high price our society would pay for tolerating criminal behavior in the name of (an illusion) of domestic tranquility. His message has applicability to the current international order.

The world's civilized nations have worked very hard since the horrors of the last century to develop a minimal set of standards of behavior to regulate the interactions between peoples and nations. When the UN was founded there was a minimal consensus, often as not breached in reality, that certain behaviors were simply unacceptable to the civilized world. Genocide was at the top of the list but all sorts of abrogations of human rights were rightly considered beyond the pale. The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a high water mark of sorts setting out the obligations that a sovereign had to its people. Even earlier, the Geneva Conventions had attempted to place limits on the use of force expressly to defend noncombatant populations. The attempts to regulate human behavior so as to manage the savagery that lies within were laudable but now, it appears that the entire world has embarked on a concerted effort to decivilize.

The world's demopaths have learned well the language of the left and the left, and the "useful idiots" who enable them, no longer believe or understand that words and deeds comprise reality as opposed to wishes constructing reality.

The demopaths, et al, routinely denounce racism based on an implicit assumption that only successful white men can be racists. (Of note, one does not have to actually be a successful white male to be considered such; simply agreeing with traditional liberal principles is enough to relegate one to the precincts of the white oppressors, aka white males.) They support overtly genocidal societies, nations, and sub-state actors and call them "freedom fighters." There is nothing exceptional about such behavior. Tyrants and murders often present themselves as "of the people, for the people" if not "by the people." It is only by virtue of the tolerance of the West, those nations that are genuinely civilized, that such misuse of language and ongoing hatred is nurtured and fostered. As has occurred too many times to recount, language precedes action and hateful language precedes hateful acts.

Rather than maintain an idealized set of behaviors to which all civilized men and nations should aspire, the rationalization is made that since no one can possibly behave perfectly no one (except the aforementioned white male oppressors) can be held to any civilized standards. Some take this further to conclude that there is no possible agreed upon set of standards for what once was thought of a s"civilized" behavior. As a result, extensive evidence of brutality and bestial behavior are ignored or considered the fault of others; no responsibility is attributed to those whose model of behavior most closely resembles that of Travis the Chimp.

The Obama Administration entered office with a poorly integrated mixture of foreign policy naivety and Chicago based political ruthlessness. They often appear to believe that the gravest threat to the United States and world peace resides on he right side of the American (and Western) political divide. There is a great deal of truth to this, in fact; if no one cared to fight back against those who wish for nothing more than to decivilize the West, there would be peace. It would be the peace of surrender, or submission, a peace that our allies in Europe appear to devoutly desire, but it would be a peace that a great many Americans would find troubling. The Obama Administration most explicitly fails to note that although it takes two to make peace, ti only takes one party to make war.

Reportedly, Travis the Chimp, in a primitive rage, tore off his victim's jaw, gouged out her eyes, and bit off her nose and hands. Anyone who can think and imagine must be horrified by such an attack and such damage to an innocent victim who only thought the best of Travis. Yet, as a reminder for those with short memories, not long ago an Al Qaeda torture manual found in Iraq offered instructions on gouging out eyes, chopping off limbs and noses, and other perversities; our "moderate" allies, the Saudis, and other Sharia law compliant cultures, routinely chop off hands and heads; throughout the retrograde Muslim crescent, innocent victims are routinely tortured with the lash and murdered for the crime of being raped or loving the wrong person. This officially sanctioned torture defines the societies that tolerate and perpetrate it as uncivilized, a culture of Travises the Chimp.

Travis could not be reasoned with, not even by the owner who loved and treated him like a member of the family. He was killed to protect the civilized people who were at risk. Our civilization remains at risk and those who we charge to protect us are breaking bread with Travis and seeking common ground. Sadly, they are unlikely to be Travis's next victim; that is reserved for the innocent victims soon to be created by a culture of such monsters in human form.

For a perfect example of how Western fecklessness enables the moral inversion of the demopaths, note that President Obama is either unknowlingly, or merely foolishly, lending some credence to Durban II:

The Obama administration chose the waning hours of Valentines Day to sneak in an announcement that it would participate in the planning for the UN hate-fest known as the Durban II Review World Conference Against Racism. This decision was reportedly advocated by our new UN ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice.

Although not committing to actually attend the conference itself, the State Department said that it would send diplomats to participate in preparatory meetings for the conference, which is set to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in April.

"This will be the first opportunity the (Obama) administration has had to engage in the negotiations for the Durban Review, and - in line with our commitment to diplomacy - the U.S. has decided to send a delegation to engage in the negotiations on the text of the conference document," the State Department said.

Iran, the Vice-Chair of the executive committee for Durban II, has played a leading role in the drafting of the text of the conference document, which is referred to in UN parlance as the conference’s “outcome document.” Backed by other members of the Organization of Islamic Conference and by various African states (particularly, Libya, Syria, Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa, Pakistan, and Egypt), Iran has refused to budge in negotiations with the European Union and the few responsible states which have been trying to tone down the inflammatory language.

Yesterday the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), released a statement welcoming what he described as President Obama’s decision to “launch a high-level diplomatic effort” to change the direction of the Durban II conference, by sending a delegation to the preparatory meeting this week in Geneva. Berman put the decision in the context of moral leadership:

It is critical that the United States regain its moral voice at the U.N. by jumping into the fray and stipulating clear redlines for re-focusing Durban II, including the removal of language in the Outcome Document attacking Israel or singling it out for criticism.

...

Obama is in the process of making either a low-level, half-hearted diplomatic effort before withdrawing from Durban II, or a low-level, half-hearted diplomatic effort before participating in it: we will learn which in due course. But what is currently going on is not a “high level diplomatic effort” involving “moral leadership.” Moral leadership will occur if Obama decides to withdraw from Durban II - if, in other words, he decides to do what George W. Bush did in connection with Durban I.

Comments

A Culture of Travis the Chimp

The subtitle of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1993 article in The American Spectator magazine, "Defining Deviancy Down", was "How We’ve Become Accustomed to Alarming Levels of Crime and Destructive Behavior."

Because crime seemed intractable and there was so much of it, various municipalities (eg, New York City) simply decided to stop arresting or prosecuting people for "minor" crimes. Street dealers and hustlers were free to ply their trades. As a result neighborhoods deteriorated and more serious crime escalated. In 1993, Rudolph Giuliani won the Mayoralty in New York and instituted the broken windows policy first proposed by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling in the early 1980s and the drug fueled crime wave in New York began to subside.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan was prescient in recognizing the high price our society would pay for tolerating criminal behavior in the name of (an illusion) of domestic tranquility. His message has applicability to the current international order.

The world's civilized nations have worked very hard since the horrors of the last century to develop a minimal set of standards of behavior to regulate the interactions between peoples and nations. When the UN was founded there was a minimal consensus, often as not breached in reality, that certain behaviors were simply unacceptable to the civilized world. Genocide was at the top of the list but all sorts of abrogations of human rights were rightly considered beyond the pale. The UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a high water mark of sorts setting out the obligations that a sovereign had to its people. Even earlier, the Geneva Conventions had attempted to place limits on the use of force expressly to defend noncombatant populations. The attempts to regulate human behavior so as to manage the savagery that lies within were laudable but now, it appears that the entire world has embarked on a concerted effort to decivilize.

The world's demopaths have learned well the language of the left and the left, and the "useful idiots" who enable them, no longer believe or understand that words and deeds comprise reality as opposed to wishes constructing reality.